There have been many types of electronic video gaming machines that have been developed. The electronic video poker gaming machine is designed to replicate the play of a hand of poker. Typically, the player is not playing against any other player's hands or against a dealer's hand; the player is simply attempting to achieve the highest ranking poker hand possible from the cards displayed to the player. The higher the ranking of the poker hand achieved by the player, the greater the player's winnings based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player. Typically, a payout schedule is posted on the gaming machine to advise the player of the payoffs available for certain winning card combinations.
The forerunner of all electronic video poker gaming machines is the video Draw Poker machine that deals cards from a standard 52 card poker deck and displays a single five card hand to the player. The player then selects which of the five cards he wishes to hold (or discard depending on the format of the gaming machine). The draw poker machine then displays replacement cards for the cards the player has discarded. The player wins or loses based on conventional poker hand rankings for the resulting five card hand. In video Draw Poker, the conventional poker hand rankings that are winning combinations are a Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks of Better. A payout table is established based on the number of coins wagered by the player and the type of poker hand achieved.
The classic draw poker machine has been modified to use jokers as wild cards or to use deuces (or even other cards) as wild cards. "Joker's Wild" and "Deuces Wild" draw poker still display to the player a single five card hand and allow the player to discard unwanted cards and receive replacement cards. The payout table is modified to recognize the differing odds for achieving various poker hands when wild cards are involved. Furthermore, different poker hand rankings are used in the pay table to recognize different winning combinations that can be achieved using wild cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,140 (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) discloses a method of play of a game generally referred to as "Double Poker". In this method of play, a player makes a wager to participate in the game and the player is dealt two distinct hands at the beginning of the game. Each hand is dealt from its own separate complete deck of cards and all five cards in each hand are dealt face up. The player selects one of the hands to play and the unselected hand is voided or removed from use. The player plays out the selected hand according to the conventional manner of play of traditional video poker games by discarding and receiving replacement cards. All replacement cards are dealt from the particular initial deck of cards from which the first five cards were dealt. The player wins or loses based on a payout schedule applied to preselected winning hand combinations and based on the number of coins wagered by the player.
The method of play disclosed in this patent has the drawback that the player only has two initial five cards hands to choose from and all five cards of each hand are displayed to the player.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new form of video poker game that gives the player many options as to which hand the player wishes to play during that particular round of the game.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a multi-hand screen display which initially displays to the player four separate five card hands. Each of the four separate five card hands can be dealt from a separate deck of cards. Each hand is displayed with two cards face up and three cards face down. The player selects one of the sets of two face up cards to play. After the player has selected one of the sets of two face up cards to play, these two face up cards are duplicated into the other three hand positions in place of the initially dealt two face up cards in each hand. The face down cards in each hand are then revealed so that the player can see all five cards of each hand. The player then discards unwanted cards and receives replacement cards in each of the four hands. Each of the resulting final five card hands are compared to a payout schedule to determine if the player has achieved a winning hand combination.
It is an alternative feature of the present invention to provide a multi-hand screen display which initially displays to the player a plurality of separate five card hands; all of the hands being dealt from the same single deck of cards. Each hand is displayed with two cards face up and three cards face down. The player selects one of the sets of two face up cards to play. After the player has selected one of the sets of two face up cards to play, these two face up cards are duplicated into the other three hand positions in place of the initially dealt face up cards in each hand. The face down cards in each hand are then revealed so that the player can see all five cards of each hand. All of the non-selected cards are returned to the deck and reshuffled to be used as possible replacement cards during the draw. The player then discards unwanted cards and receives replacement cards in each of the four hands. Each of the resulting final five card hands are compared to a payout schedule to determine if the player has achieved a winning hand combination.
It is still a further feature of the present invention to provide special bonus payouts based on the cards revealed during the initial deal of the game. For example, if the initial cards that are face up comprise eight, seven or six Aces or eight, seven, six or five card Royal Flushes, the player can be paid a large jackpot payout.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the player is given multiple options at the beginning of the game to select what the player perceives is the best possible and potential hand.
It is a further advantage of the present invention that the player is provided multiple initial starting hands so that the player has the opportunity to maximize his winnings when he is dealt a good starting hand.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.